Snubbed truck



p 6, 1960 w. L. SCHLEGEL, JR 2,951,453

SNUBBED TRUCK Filed May 16. 1958 Maw- United States Patent SNUBBED TRUCK Walter L. Schlegel, In, Chicago, 11]., assignor to American Steel Foundries, Chicago, 111., a corporation of New Jersey Filed May 16, 1958, Ser. No. 735,779 2 Claims. (Cl. 105-197) This invention relates to railway car trucks and more particularly to a truck embodying novel snubbing means for damping oscillations of a truck bolster upon its supporting springs.

This application is a continuation-in-part of my copending application, Serial No. 291,496, filed June 3, 1952, now Patent No. 2,849,964 for Snubbed Truok.

This invention contemplates the provision of a freight car truck construction comprising a bolster resiliently supported upon relatively movable side frames, the relative movement of bolster and side frames being snubbed by friction means disposed between each side frame and one end of the bolster.

A primary object of the invention is to provide a truck construction in which one friction shoe is associated with each bolster end to snub movements of the bolster relative to the side frame, a friction surface movable with the bolster being urged into frictional engagement with one side frame column by resilient means associated with the shoe to urge it against the other column.

A further object of the invention is to accommodate slight nonparallelism between the side frame columns in an arrangement such as above described.

This invention embodies other novel features, details of construction and arrangements of parts which are hereinafter set forth in the specification and claims and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Figure l is a fragmentary sectional view taken along the line 11 of Figure 2 illustrating a truck construction embodying features of the present invention, and

Figure 2 is a transverse sectional view taken along the line 22 of Figure 1.

Referring now to the drawings for a better understanding of the present invention and more particularly to Figures 1 and 2 therein, the truck is shown as comprising, a bolster member 2 resiliently supported at its ends upon spaced side frame members 4, only one frame and related end of the bolster being shown and described as the other end of the bolster and its associated side frame is identical in construction.

The side frame 4 is shown as comprising a compression member 6, a tension member 8, and spaced columns defining therewith a bolster opening 12 for the reception of one end of the bolster 2 which is resiliently supported upon the side frame by means of a group of compression springs 16 interposed between the bolster and the tension member. Each side of the bolster is provided with inboard and outboard guide lugs 18 and 20, respectively, for sliding engagement with the associated column 10, the lugs normally affording an interlock between the bolster and side frame when the springs 16 are disposed on the tension member to support the bolster. Upon removal of the springs 16 it will be noted that the end of the bolster may be lowered and then withdrawn from the widened lower end of the bolster opening 12.

The bolster 2 is of box section comprising top and bottom walls 22 and 24 and spaced side walls 26'and 28 extending therebetween. The side walls 26 and 28 are formed with pockets 30 and 32, respectively, between the lugs 18 and 20 to receive friction shoes 34 and 36, respectively, for engagement against wear plates 38 and 39 secured'on the columns 10. The pocket 30 is defined by inclined Webs 40 and 42 and by spaced inboard and outboard webs 44 and 46, respectively. The webs 40 and 42 are joined to the top and bottom walls 22 and 24, re-

spectively, and converge inwardly toward the longitudinal vertical centerplane of the bolster and said webs 40 and 42 merge to define a generally V-shape recess. The inboard and outboard edges of the webs 40 and 42 are joined to the inboard and outboard webs 44 and 46 which, in turn, are joined to the side wall 26 and top and bottom walls 22 and 24.

. The pocket 32 is defined by spaced inboard and outboard Webs 48 and 50 and a diagonal web 52. The webs 48 and 50 are joined to the top, bottom and side walls. The diagonal web 52 is joined to the top wall 22 and slopes downwardly and inwardly to merge, with the bottom wall:24. The inboard and outboard edges of the diagonal web merge with the inboard and outboard webs 48 and 50, respectively.

The friction shoe 34 is formed on one side with a fiat vertical face 54 to engage the adjacent wear plate 38, and has its other side formed with flat diagonal surfaces 56 and 58 complementary to the outer surfaces of the webs 40 and 42, respectively. The friction shoe 36 is formed with a fiat vertical face 60 to engage the wear plate 39, and has its opposite side formed with a diagonal surface 62 complementary to the outer face of the diagonal web 52. A compression spring 64 is seated on the tension member 8 to engage the bottom side of the shoe 36 to urge the latter between the web 52 and adjacent wear plate 39. It will be noted that spring 64 acting against the wedge shoe 36 acts to move the bolster laterally to press the friction shoe 34 into tight frictional engagement against the wear plate 38.

From the foregoing, it is seen that the vertical force of the spring 64 acting against the shoe 36 is translated into a horizontal force which urges the bolster towards and against the shoe 34 for the purpose of engaging the latter with the wear plate 38 in order to frictionally dampen vertical oscillation of bolster 22. It is also seen that spring 64 is the sole means for urging shoes 34 and 36 into engagement with bolster 22 and with the respective wear plates 38 and 39.

As will be understood by those skilled in the art manufacturing tolerances may result in slight nonparallelism between wear plates 38 and 39 as seen either in Figure l or Figure 2, and the configuration of webs 40, 42 and 48 enable the friction shoes to adjust slightly to compensate for such nonparallelism as the device wears-in in service. If desired, this feature may be eliminated by welding the shoe 34 in place or by casting the shoe 34 integrally with the bolster. When the shoe 34 is thus integrally joined with the bolster, the friction face 54 will be carried by the bolster and movable therewith. Or if desired the surfaces 56 and 58 may be crowned to spherical form, in order to facilitate continuous contact therebetween in the event the friction shoe 34 swivels due to nonparallelism of plates 38 and 39 or in the event of swivelling action of the bolster 22 to out-of-square relationship with respect to the side frame. Surface 62 may also be crowned in the same manner and for the same reasons.

It is to be understood that the details which I have shown are used by way of illustration, and not limitation, as various and other forms will, of course, be apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention or the scope of the claims.

I claim:

1. In a railway car truck, a side frame having spaced columns with substantially vertical friction surfaces part- 1C6 Patented Sept. 6,1960- 1y=defining a-bolster'opening, a bolster spring-supported in said'opening, a top and bottom wedge surfaces within the bolster diverging toward one of said friction surfaces, said wedge surfaces converging toward the lonigtudinal vertical centerplane'ofthe bolster, a frictionshoeena gaged with' said wedge surfaces and said: one friction sur face, another wedge surface onssaid bolster facing-:the

other-friction surface and arranged atv an'rangle With-re spect thereto, said other wedge surface andoneof said: first mentioned wedge surfaces convergingwithhrespect toeach othertoward said plane, another shoe engageable withsaid other wedge surface =andl'said other frictionsur? face, and spring means carried by the frame, said. spring: means being compressed against said-other shoe =and urg-. ing it against saidotherwedge surface andsaidother fPiC-t tion surface thereby urging-thebolster toward said one, ffictionsurface to urge the first mentioned wedge surfaces against the first mentioned shoe-whereby the first men-.

tioned shoe is urged against said one friction surface, said spring means being the'sole actuating means for both of-said shoes and saidspring means acting on the first mentioned, shoe only throughthe first mentioned wedge-surfaces 2. In a railway car truck, a side frame having spaced columns with substantially vertical and substantially parand spring means independent ofthe first-mentioned springmeanssupported .byl the-frame between said columns and seated against a downwardly facing surface of said fr-iction shoe for Wedging the latter tightly between said wedge surface andsaidonefrictiontsurface and for thereby urging the friction faceagainstsaid other friction surface, said last-mentioned spring means being the sole actuating means for said shoe and said face and acting on the latter solely through engagement of the shoe and the bolster wedge surface.

References Cited in, the,,file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Duryea May 23, 1939 Orr et. a1. Nov. 6, 1951 "an- All! 

